Pros

Cons

Expensive.

Carrier bloatware.

Bottom Line

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is the most attractive and powerful phablet you can buy, but it's also the most expensive.

Aug. 17, 2016

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 (US$849.99, 64GB) is easily one of the best smartphones on the market, with an incredible 5.7in display, top-notch performance, and better S Pen implementation than ever. But competition among big-screen smartphones is fierce, particularly due to other Samsung devices, like the 5.1in Samsung Galaxy S7 and the 5.5in Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The 5.7in Samsung Galaxy Note7 is the best phone you can buy if you like to write notes and sketch with a stylus, but if you can go without, the almost-as-large S7 Edge offers a nearly identical experience at a lower price, so it remains our Editors' Choice.

Design, Display, and Features
One of the most striking things about this oversized phone is just how comfortable it feels considering its massive display. It measures 152.4 by 73.66 by 7.62mm (HWD) and weighs 170g, by far the smallest footprint seen on screen dimensions of this size range.

By comparison, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus, which a smaller 5.5in display, is taller, wider, and heavier. The same is true of the 5.7in Google Nexus 6P. I found that I had been able to use the Samsung Galaxy Note7 almost as easily as the S7 Edge. It also has a one-handed mode that resizes the screen and moves most control elements to one side so everything is within easy reach. Samsung has finally mastered how to make big phones that don't feel big.

I received a black version of this new smartphone for review; just to note there are blue and silver options also available. Like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, this new entry into the Samsung Galaxy Note family has a distinctive curved edge display. Interestingly, the curve is even sharper, stopping abruptly at the sides rather than gradually tapering off. This makes for an even more striking design. A strip of metal along the edge gives you something to hold without accidentally activating the screen. The back of the phone is made of Gorilla Glass 5, which is rated to withstand drops of 5ft onto hard surfaces.

The screen itself is an absolute beauty. Also covered in Gorilla Glass 5, the 5.7in, 2,560-by-1440 Super dispaly is the same resolution as you'll find on other high-end phones, but the overall image quality is better. According to Dr. Ray Soneira of DisplayMate Labs, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 has the single best smartphone display on the market, with the widest colour gamuts, highest peak brightness (a staggering 1,048 nits) and contrast ratio, and the lowest screen reflectance.

From my perspective, colours look rich and saturated, viewing angles are excellent, and the screen is easily visible even under direct sunlight. Auto-brightness is particularly well-calibrated thanks to light sensors on the front and back of the device. And Samsung has incorporated a blue light filter in the display settings that functions similarly to Night Shift on iOS, making the screen's colour temperature warmer to reduce eye strain.

As with the Samsung Galaxy S7, this oversized flagship has a display that is always on to give you time, date, and notifications at a glance. I found it handy to have it sitting next to me on my desk and it didn't seem to drain the battery much. You'll also find the same edge functionality as on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Swiping the right side of the screen brings up various panels that give you access to apps, contacts, tasks and shortcuts, the calendar, and additional panels you can install and customise.

Below the display you'll find Samsung's standard combination of backlit, capacitive touch buttons and a physical Home button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner. It's fast and responsive, matching the speed and reliability of the S7.

There's also an iris scanner, which I scoffed at in the beginning and during the first hands-on, but found it worked with a surprising degree of reliability, unlocking the phone even in complete darkness. Setup is similar to the fingerprint scanner: create a password, PIN, or pattern first, then scan your iris. When you want to unlock your phone, simply swipe up on the lock screen and align your eyes with the animation. It's not as fast as a fingerprint scanner, but you can have both enabled at the same time, for a handy secondary way to unlock your phone.

Along the sides you'll find buttons and ports in a fairly standard layout. There's a power button on the right, a pair of volume buttons on the left, and a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C charging port, main speaker, and stylus slot on the bottom.

Fortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5's design flaw has been fixed: the stylus won't fit in backwards anymore, preventing the risk of damaging the slot.

Clicking it in and out is easy, and the phone instantly recognizes when the S Pen has been detached, letting you write on the screen if the display is off, or bringing up Air Command if the display is on—a feature I'll touch on more in a bit. The stylus itself is similar to the one you'll find on the immediate predecessor, except it has a thinner, more precise point. I found using it to be as easy and natural as using a pen and small paper notepad. At a moment's notice, I could pop the stylus out and scribble down quick notes, drawings, translate text, and even make a GIF.

On the top of the phone you'll find a combined SIM/microSD card slot that worked fine with a 256GB Samsung Evo card. However, Android Marshmallow's Adoptable Storage feature is disabled, so you can't have the phone treat the memory card the same as internal storage though apps can still be moved over manually with the file manager.

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is IP68 waterproof, meaning it can withstand up to 6ft of water for 30 minutes. The phone survived spontaneous coffee spills, a thorough rinsing under the sink, and immersion in a bowl of water. After complete immersion the phone notified me that water was detected in the USB-C port and I should wait until it was completely dry before plugging in. It worked fine after giving it an hour to dry off.

Some customers who pre-order the Note 7 will get the new Samsung Gear VR headset that's compatible with every recent Galaxy device. I like it a bit more than the previous Gear VR due to its sleek black/blue appearance and more comfortable fit with my glasses.

Network Performance and Connectivity
I tested a T-Mobile unit of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 as it supports LTE bands 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/20/25/26. T-Mobile did well in our Fastest Mobile Networks project, coming a close second to Verizon Wireless. In my testing in midtown Manhattan, the phone had strong network connectivity, with a high download speed of 28Mbps outdoors and 12Mbps inside. Connectivity is better than the iPhone 6s Plus on T-Mobile, retaining signal where the iPhone dropped out. It also supports dual-band Wi-Fi, hitting 153Mbps down and 127Mbps up on our 5GHz FiOS test router.

Phone calls are clear, with just a tiny hint of an echo, and the earpiece volume is loud. Noise cancellation is also great at blotting out background noise. Wi-Fi calling isn't as impressive; voices come across muffled and crackly, though transmissions are still audible.

Processor and Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is powered via a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, just like most current top-tier phones. It's not the Snapdragon 821 many were hoping for, but it's plenty powerful all the same. The phone scored 142,144 on the AnTuTu benchmark, which measures overall system performance, beating out the Samsung Galaxy S7 (123,993), S7 Edge (121,906), and the OnePlus 3.

In general, performance on the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is screaming. In addition to the top-end processor, it has 4GB of RAM. When working together, they make for a smooth user experience when launching a dozen apps or playing high-end games like Asphalt 8 and GTA: San Andreas. I didn't detect a trace of lag in testing, and like past Samsung Galaxy Note devices, it has Dual-Window, a feature that lets you simultaneously run two apps side-by-side. If you ever feel the device is becoming slow, there's a built-in Device Maintenance feature under Settings that will free up RAM by closing apps running in the background.

Left to right: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy Note7, Galaxy S7

Battery life on the this new flagships smartphone is great, despite its super-bright screen and 100mAh lower battery capacity (3,500mAh) than the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It lasted about 9 hours in our rundown test, in which we set screen brightness to maximum and stream full-screen video over LTE. By comparison, the curved flagship entry from early 2016 managed 10 hours.

Even so, it's still among the longest runtimes of the phones we've tested, comparing well with the lower-resolution OnePlus 3 (9 hours, 48 minutes) and blowing the iPhone 6s Plus (4 hours, 11 minutes) out of the water. The vast majority of users should have no problem getting a full day's use out of the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 comes with Samsung's proprietary Adaptive Fast Charging that tops up the battery from empty to full in 1.5 hours with the included adapter. The Samsung Wireless Charging Pad (not included) also supports fast charging, though it isn't quite as rapid as the wired adapter. The aforementioned Device Maintenance feature also includes battery settings that help you keep track of what apps are causing the most drain.

Camera
Camera performance on the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is identical to the earlier 2016 flagship devices. All three share the same optically stabilised 12MP rear camera and 5MP front-facing camera. It's the best camera phone experience you can get right now, capable of quickly taking sharp, well-exposed shots both indoors and out. Colours look rich and accurate, and there's little blur or noise in most photos. It also manages well in low-light settings, minimizing grain and capturing more detail than the iPhone 6s Plus. 4K video recording at 30fps is clear and stable, as is 1080p recording at 60fps. The front camera is also solid, taking clear shots with accurate details and minimal noise.

There are some minor changes to the camera app. The settings and modes are more hidden, and some icons look a little different, but functionality remains the same. Swiping up now switches between the rear and front sensors. Also, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 still includes the same modes you'll find on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, as well as manual (Pro) controls that let you tweak white balance, shutter speed, and autofocus.

Software and S Pen
This new top-end flagship comes with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and Samsung confirmed an update to Android 7.0 Nougat will be out in the next two or three months.

It has TouchWiz running on top, but this isn't the TouchWiz of yesteryear. Gone are all the beeps, bloops, and bewildering arrays of menus. In their place you'll find a streamlined interface with a lock screen and notification shade that resemble stock Android, but with a few of Samsung's own customisations. App icons are changed, swiping left from the home screen takes you to Flipboard, and the app drawer is on the right of the screen rather than the middle. It's the lightest iteration of Samsung's UI layer yet.

The Settings menu is also simplified. The myriad menus and tabs are gone and in their place are several lumped-together settings that tell you what you'll find inside. For instance, Connections includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data Usage, and Airplane Mode. Under Advanced Features you'll find toggles for S Pen, Accessories, Quick Launch shortcuts, Game Launcher, and Gesture Controls.

The S Pen also benefits from this streamlining. Rather than have separate S Note, Magnifier, and Screen Write apps, Samsung has integrated everything into Air Command, which you can see in the picture above. Detaching the S Pen from its slot when the screen is on will bring up the Air Command menu, giving you access to the various note-taking functions. Create a Note and Screen Write are self-explanatory, allowing you to jot down notes and save anything you scribble on the screen respectively. Magnify lets you magnify sections of the display, Translate lets you highlight and translate individual words, and Smart Select lets you select and isolate anything on your screen and save it for later reference if it's a picture or section of text; if it's video, you can turn it into a GIF. There's also a spare slot that lets you pin an app of your choice.

Like other Samsung devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 comes with Samsung Knox proctective security and encryption, allowing it to be used for enterprise situations. You can also create secure, password-protected folders and store apps that you want to keep private.

In addition to all the new features, there are a number of pre-installed apps and some carrier bloatware. On the T-Mobile model I tested, there are 11 Samsung apps, 7 T-Mobile apps, Amazon, Instagram, Lookout, and Whatsapp, none of which can be uninstalled. Altogether software takes up 14GB of internal storage, leaving you with 50GB of free space out of 64GB total. It's a heavy load, but the internal storage is still ample enough that you should have no trouble downloading lots of apps or storing photos and videos. You can also expand storage with a microSD card.

Conclusions

The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is undoubtedly one of the best phablets available, but at US$850, it's also the priciest. That's not to say it isn't worth it; you get a powerful processor, one of the best displays available, a surprisingly svelte and rugged build, strong network connectivity, an excellent camera, great battery life, and a useful S Pen stylus.

If you own the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 or older and love it, then this new entry is undoubtedly a worthwhile upgrade. But if you're just looking for the best smartphone with a large form factor and don't have any need for a stylus, then the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge gets you nearly the same overall experience for less money. Just for that reason, it remains our Editors' Choice.

[PCMag SEA Editor Note: Please keep in mind that the Asian variant is likely to sport the Samsung Exynos equivalent and, thus, many have slight performance variations that are different from the T-Mobile optimised Samsung Galaxy Note7. Do keep an eye out for the Asian Unlocked review when it does reach the regional lab.]

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.

Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed to the Frommer's series of travel guides and Web sites for more than a decade. Other than his home town of New York, his favorite … See Full Bio